Crean learns from lessons of fellow coaches

When the IU men’s basketball team started slow out of the gates, shooting 0-of-9 to start Saturday evening as the team faced the Coppin State Eagles at Assembly Hall, IU Coach Tom Crean said he wasn’t worried.

He knew his team could adjust to the Eagles’ defense and own shooting woes on the court.

Most fans would think of halftime as the period to make adjustments in defensive schemes and offensive sets, but Crean said he has learned from successful professional sports franchises and his brothers-in-law, Baltimore Ravens Coach John Harbaugh and San Francisco 49ers Coach Jim Harbaugh, that the time to make changes is during the action.

“When I think of my brother-in-laws and the way they coach, and I think of the New England Patriots and the Green Bay Packers and the programs you watch closely, they don’t make adjustments at halftime,” Crean said. “Halftime is too late. They make adjustments the next series.

“We talked about that today, and we have to become that type of team. If we’re just adjusting at halftime and making changes at halftime, it gets a little harder.”

After falling behind 9-2 in the game’s first five and a half minutes and failing to score a field goal until 14:27 was left in the first half, Crean’s Hoosiers caught fire the rest of the way in, shooting 10-of-17, 58.8 percent, in the rest of the half as well as 21-of-34, 61.8 percent, in the second half to defeat the Eagles 87-51.

Crean added the Hoosiers were getting off quality shots, but they just didn’t seem to fall at the beginning of the game. His players stayed focused, made a few adjustments and went on to play one of the best games he’s seen all season.

“When we can adjust on the fly from a timeout and maybe a possession, but especially at a timeout, that’s where we’ve got to go, because you can have the greatest game plan in the world, but there’s gonna be something that comes up different in that game, and you’ve got to adjust to it,” Crean said.

“If you don’t have a smart team, and if you don’t have a team that shares the basketball, if you don’t have a team that will cover for one another, that gets really hard, and this team is learning how to do that.”

Crean also said he owes much of what he learned during his nine years coaching at Marquette before coming to IU in 2008 to former coach and ESPN analyst Rick Majerus, who passed away Saturday evening.

Majerus started his coaching career at Marquette from 1983-86 before stints at Ball State from 1987-89 and Utah from 1989-2004.

He then worked for ESPN as a game and studio analyst from 2004-07 when Crean said he often gave Crean, then at Marquette, secret advice.

“He did a lot of TV games back when we were at Marquette, and he never wanted anybody to know he was giving me some tips and advice, but he was,” Crean said. “He was a brilliant guy. I could call, and he would give me a couple ideas, and it was good.”

Crean said one of the most important things he ever took from the late coach was the importance of a mother’s love.

Majerus resigned from a coaching job with Southern California in December 2004, just five days after taking the position, and would later reveal the true reason was so he could take care of his ailing mother back home in Wisconsin.

“He said something one time that I’ve always used,” Crean said. “He was on a show back there on a Sunday night and said the last unconditional love you ever have is that of your mother. I never forget that. I always use that with our teams. He was a brilliant coach.”